Officials also say they support stronger criminal sanctions for misuse of anonymised data and are working with suppliers to ensure IT systems are up-to-date.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health said though it had taken the decision to close the Care.data programme it was “committed to realising the benefits of sharing information”.

The Care.data project, led NHS England, together with the Health and Social Care Information Centre, was designed to bring health and social care information from different settings together to see what was working well and what could be done better.

It was due to launch two years ago, but was paused after concerns a public information campaign explaining its use was not clear enough and did not reach everyone.